It's the Magic: The End of TL;DR Week

I’ve been at work all week, so I haven’t gotten around to drafting Mirrodin Besieged yet, much less making decks with it. I should have a chance this week to do some of that and next Friday should have an “It’s the Magic” that gives my first response to it. I won’t bother telling you to stay tuned; if you were going to leave, you would have by now.

Better Know a Tier
This week’s tier is Delta Tier. It’s the very end of Tiers that are sorted by my approximation of their quality, and it has a number of old and new decks in it (I know I’ve skipped Charlie. Don’t worry, by the time I get around to it, it will have changed enough that it will probably contain some cards from the tiers I’ve already gone over; it’s like you already know it.

Warp-Bizarre distortions of reality like the one that nearly destroyed Dominaria aren’t as rare as most would like. Careless planeswalkers from earlier eons would uncommonly create such problems and with little difficulty largely solve them once they came to their attention. In recent times, they are rarer, but don’t escape notice as quickly and pose a serious threat to their progenitors. The Warped One is the planewalker from which most of this knowledge is gleaned. A shameless manipulator of time and moments, he has no problem erasing most of his problems from the landscape in front of him. His best guess is that in his reckless youth, he opened such a rift against magics too powerful for them to affect. The result was a tear that sundered both his body and his mind. Still imbued with a spark, he seeks to find his other half. Still wise and experienced, he is prone to fits of cold, amoral rage and often suffers fugues where he may find himself miles (or planes) away from where he started.

Timewalking Archive Trap: Gepanzerte Welle (Part 1 of 3)

Battletech is a universe set in the 31st century where giant robots called Battlemechs are kings of the battlefield and feudal realms fight for planets devastated by years of warfare. I'm also putting up a 'Green Box' entry with background for Battletech in general, and this write-up in particular. It's linked here, or it's just below if you're using an RSS feed.

A few years ago, I tried to convince my friends to participate in a Battletech email-based roleplaying game where each of them would play the ruler of one of these realms and play politics and manage war in one of the best universes for it. They didn't not decline, but participation was marginal and the fiction I had for the setting got shelved as I focused my work on storytelling and original settings.

However, I am quite proud of much of the work I did on it, even on a peripheral write-up I did for a mercenary unit connected with one of the 'NPC' factions, revised and presented below. It should be noted that as with most Battletech products, it's written from an in-universe perspective; that is, it represents a document published by one of the characters in the setting, which makes it subject to bias and omissions from characters who simply do not have perfect knowledge. This document itself is a compilation of two different sets of documents; a series of personal memoirs and a more standard unit report. The memoirs also serve to break up a massive document that's the centerpiece of TL;DR Week, which I am never doing again ever.

Gepanzerte Welle

"After her time as a bondswoman, my mother came to hate The Clans in a way I never could. Had I lived with her into adolescence, I think I would've taken to the Clans as a part of a teenage rebellious period. Looking back, every time she told me about winning a battle against them, or even recounted about how the company had lost in terms of victory or manpower, she'd always remark on how many of them she'd killed. I think to her, each one of them was my father."
Tavan Londeri, Memoirs of My Mother, unpublished private collection, c.3083

[This final section covers our least relevant data, but is included for completeness. It includes information from the old MRBC files as well as updates and pertinent pieces of the Ghost Bear information packet we received after the Entente Alliance raid on New Terra.]

Unit Type: Mercenary
Inception Date: 3054
Current Status: Terminated
Last Updated: 3064

Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission Membership Review Document, 3054
Founders
Colonel Blair Londeri-An unremarkable, loyal member of the Kungsarme, she was captured by the Ghost Bears during the initial phases of the Clan Invasion. She emerged over a year later, saved from bondship as a Smoke Jaguar tech during the battle for Luthien. She--and her newborn son--made her way back to the remains of the Free Rasalhague Republic where she continued to serve in the Kungsarme until earlier this year. Frustrated--like many of her acquaintances--with the Inner Sphere's dedication to playing defense against The Clans after The Treaty of Tukayyid, she departed with equipment and personnel on the Midnight Sally, a dropship with a captain and crew sympathetic to her cause. After a short swing through the Lyon's Thumb to pick up Xao Ollendorf and his followers(see below), they made their way towards Outreach, to form Gepanzerte Welle.
Year of Birth: 3023
Battlemech: Orion ON1
First Company, First Lance


Lt. Colonel Xao Ollendorf -A retired Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth (AFFC) General, he met Londeri during her first time at the KungsArme Warrior University where he was teaching. They became good friends, and kept in touch regularly both before her capture and after her emancipation. Sympathizing with the young warrior, he's allegedly come out of retirement to temper her enthusiasm and occasional recklessness. A father of three loyal AFFC mechwarriors, he also provides regular parenting advice for the first-time mother. He’s accompanied by a handful of survivor Commonwealth mechwarriors with no unit and deep a sense of betrayal over the Steiner family's inaction over the Clan threat.
Year of Birth: 2998
Battlemech: Zeus ZEU-6S
Second Company, First Lance

Major Adam Minisadler-Initially, Adam Minisadler was charged with helping Blair Londeri reintegrate into normal command after her capture. By all reports, the relationship between the two was antagonistic from the start. Minisadler gravitated towards administration and management rather than prowess in a 'mech (despite an apparent lifetime of training to the contrary), and Londeri preferred to take to the field over the requisitions and politicking of even the lowest Free Rasalhague Republic commands. Minisadler discovered her plan to desert and alerted their superiors, forcing her hasty departure from the KungsArme. He successfully jockeyed for the right to be the one to hunt her down. He requisitioned the 2nd Air Wing, the same one that hesitated to stop the departure of the Midnight Sally, and a handful of infantry and 'mechs to bring the errant officer to heel. Showing greater investigative skill than most had given him credit for, he was waiting planetside when Londeri arrived to gather her Lyran allies. Much to everyone's surprise, he, the 2nd Air Wing (now the 110th), and an up-and-coming mechwarrior named Quigley joined her fledgling mercenary unit. To fights the Clans wherever and whenever others would not. The 110th now deploys in support of the Gepanzerte Welle 1st Company.
Year of Birth: 3019
Battlemech: Spider SDR-5V
First Company, Second Lance

Captain Raymond Starling-A prodigy in the sciences and behind a 'mech, Raymond Starling was a celebrated entrant to the KungsArme Warrior University. There, he was mentored by Blair Londeri, before was redeployed to the periphery border for routine field training. Undisciplined and selfish, he washed out of the KAWU and fell in with the mercenary unit Deg's Black-Heart Warriors. When their command structure was shattered in late 3054, the almost-whole unit fell apart. Charismatic, if only moderately experienced, Starling led elements of their aerospace, vehicular, and 'mech forces to the banner of his old teacher. Both hope to develop both his leadership and warrior skills more fully. In the aftermath of The Clan Invasion, he's had to strike the old name of his Trebuchet, once named "Daishi." He has not yet thought of a new moniker for it.
Year of Birth: 3030
Battlemech: Trebuchet  TBT-5N
Second Company, Second Lance

Deployments
The Gepanzerte Welle intends to take contracts against the Clans, remembering their rather low upgrade status. Their roots make it unlikely they will be hired by FRR and ComStar employers and it's doubtful they'll take contracts against the FRR.

Assets
Gepanzerte Welle consists of two active field companies consisting of two battlemech lances and a wing of fighter support. First company also boasts a lance of vehicles while Second company has a motorized infantry unit. Their third 'company' consists of a collection of vehicles, fighters, and infantry who usually serve on base defense and emergency reserve forces.

Tactics
Because of their relatively light equipment and low upgrade status, The Gepanzerte Welle is looking for work in light raiding, fire support, and scouting missions. Colonel Londeri's tactics in the Dragoon simulators feature on-the-ground scouting with intense aerial attacks from a distance. Ground combat contingencies feature the larger, 'anchor' mechs and standoff vehicles of a company holding a center while lighter units seek to encircle and harass.

According to reports, they are searching for contracts that lean towards upgrade kits and salvaged technology over C-Bills.

Part I
Part II
Part III

The Green Box: Gepanzerte Welle, aka Battletech, Pt 1

 

If you don't know much about the Battletech universe, this brief write-up contains much of what you need to know for the Gepanzerte Welle write-up(linked here, or posted above if you're using an RSS feed.).

Most of Battletech history centers around five nation-states in a sphere around Terra (Earth) called The Inner Sphere:

Pictured: Instant status quo, just add twenty-five years and a few expendable NPCs.

The inhabitants of the Inner Sphere had beaten each other into a state of near barbarism, culminating in the fourth in a series of massive wars. In this last war, a sixth state was created to act as a buffer between two of the other states. This place was called The Free Rasalhague Republic, a(relatively) tiny collection of worlds created by political convenience:

Pictured: Added NPCs.

In 3050, a coalition of long-lost colonies arrived in the Inner Sphere, determined to take over everything. They called themselves The Clans, and they had spent all of the years that The Inner Sphere had used grinding their best technology into dust to make deadly machines of war piloted by 'Trueborn' genetic super-soldiers.

Sadly, the nacent Free Rasalhague Republic was in their path. Millions were killed, and millions more were taken as 'Freeborn' fen to add to the citizenry of their new gene-tweaked overlords. Some Inner Sphere warriors, including those of the FRR army (or Kungsarme) were taken into Clans as Bondsmen; honored slaves just a cut above the masses.

Important turning points of the war were Luthien, the capitol of a neighboring state (the Draconis Combine) and Tukayyid, an unassuming agrarial world in the Free Rasalhague Republic. Tukayyid marked a treaty point in The Clan Invasion where the Inner Sphere manipulated the Clan honor code, which focused on bravado and dealmaking to prove a warrior's mettle. A cease fire of fifteen years was granted by the Clans.

 

 Pictured, in order from Top to Bottom: Fearsome Invaders, Scrappy Underdogs

The Treaty of Tukayyid gave the collective states of The Inner Sphere time to prepare their armies as best they could and bootstrap their technology up to the level of their enemies. Most doubted that they would be ready, even at the resumption of hostilities in fifteen years. However, some, motivated by revenge and losses suffered through the initial invasion, thought that an immediate attack against The Clans was the correct response.

Lyon's Thumb is a cluster of systems with habitable planets found in the Free Rasalhague's other neighbor, the Federated Commonwealth, led by the Steiner-Davion royal family.

Outreach(not pictured) is the home of most mercenary business in The Inner Sphere. It's overseen by the most reknown mercenary unit, The Wolf's Dragoons. The Wolves perform accredation of mercenary units, offer repair and training services, serve as hiring brokers, gather relevant intelligence on such units, and hold mercenary units accountable for the comission of war crimes, breaches of contract, or other infractions which might reflect poorly on the mercenary business as a whole. The mercenary industry is usually booming in the Inner Sphere, as large governments with slow methods of interstellar travel and relatively small armies often need professional military forces in the right place at the right time. The Clans do not hire mercenaries and their culture holds them in the very lowest of regards.

During 3058, the Jade Falcons, within the confines set by the Treaty of Tukayyid, launched a surprise assault on several worlds in the Federated Commonweath, cutting a swath through the FC that terminated on Coventry. It was a show of force that left their other posessions in the Inner Sphere poorly defended by reserves and salhoma troops, those deemed too old to be effective warriors.

Comstar was an interstellar communications agency made into an independent organization so that it could serve a neutral arbiter between Successor States and allow communications between planets to continue even through a series of destructive wars. This neutrality allowed Comstar to maintain quite a bit of technology that the Successor States did not, and it did so rather quietly for a variety of reasons. Comstar forces were the ones who negotiated, fought, and won the Treaty at Tukayyid.

When Comstar later liberalized and began sharing thier technology in an attempt to help the rest of The Inner Sphere fight The Clans, factions within it which had turned their secrecy into a rote religion separated from Comstar and named themselves after the organization's creator, Jerome Blake. The Word of Blake would later use Comstar secrets to engage in all manner of fanatical, political acts over the next fifteen years before radically redefining baselines for 'fanatical,' 'political,' and 'acts.'

Around 3060, amongst a handful of political criseses that cast doubt on the firmness of The Treaty of Tukayyid, the Inner Sphere did decide to go on the offensive against a Clan. They officially united under the banner of the then-and-now-defunct Star League and chose a target: The Smoke Jaguars. Operation Bulldog was put into effect, slamming waves of elite, Inner Sphere troops into the unprepared Clan forces. The Operation was an unexpected success, and The Star League Defense Forces resolved to follow the Smoke Jaguar forces all the way back to their holdings in The Clan Homeworlds.

Pictured: Yes, the five bigger blobs annihilating the smaller blue blob (not pictured) was a really big deal. Somehow, the dead guys are considered the jerks in this scenario.

A few years later, Clan Ghost Bear, now sharing a border with The Draconis Combine in the wake of the Jaguars' removal, became embroiled in a war. While the war was started by rogue forces, both sides were drawn in by codes of honor that could only be satisifed with more bloodshed. The conflict ended in a quick, but very tenuous peace that allowed both parties to save face. Raids by rogue units jeopardized this peace and both sides worked fervently to quell their own problems before another costly war could start.

Also see the Battletech Mini-Glossary.


Pictures courtesy of Sarna.com.

Field Manual Kris: The Talk Circuit

Interior, Oval Office. President Barak Obama sits at the president's desk with full suit and tie. One of the classic white couches has been moved to The President's left, facing outward.

Pictured: George W. Bush trying his hand at theater in a production of "Return to Oz."

PBO: "Welcome back to the White House everyone, today we have a very special guest. Well...Joe, is he important?"

*Cut to Joe Biden behind a set of drums, his jacket draped over the back of his chair and sleeves rolled up. He smiles and laughs with an 'I don't know' gesture.*

PBO: "Well, he is a voter. Everyone, welcome Kris."

There is no applause.

Kris: *Sits on the middle of the couch.* "This is...really uncomfortable."

PBO: "C'mon. It's a great couch. Hilary was just sitting there this afternoon."

Kris: "...less...comfortable."

Playing Favorites excerpts, pt 07

Every Tuesday, I post excerpts from my best-selling at not-selling super blog, Playing Favorites.

My other blogs are Giant-Sized this week, and so is Playing Favorites. Enjoy.

Full disclosure; I’ve only read, like a half-dozen individual Black Panther comics. That’s not even ‘Black Panther’ comics where his name was on the title. Half of those were ‘Fantastic Four’ issues where Reed and Sue were on vacation after Civil War and newlyweds Black Panther and Storm were filling in. I honestly only picked those up because they ended up dimension-hopping to the Marvel Zombies Universe. I got one from after that arc where they were on racist retard Skrull planet (just like in the classic Star Trek episode, “A Piece of the Action”), but that…had to be an accident; I don’t think that comic came out while I was still drinking heavily.

Anyway, I like Black Panther because he’s the trifecta; the technology, magic, and national support of Doctor Doom, the drive, abilities, and wealth of Batman, and the something something of someone else who isn’t memorable because they aren’t Doctor Doom or Batman(maybe ‘integrity’ and ‘Captain America’). But really, aren’t Batman and Doctor Doom enough to make a trifecta? Possibly more? Is the sum of two and two three? No, it would be foolish to say such is so, but it would not be so foolish to say that two and two is greater than three.

The Game's the Thing: Experience in Multiple Techniques

For players, experience is a very simple thing; it's a bridge from the baby's first badass of their new character to the final boss battle badass that always seems inevitable just a few sessions before the campaign falls apart. It's a measure of progress and a return on their investment on having fun. What's the reward for playing your Batman-themed player character? Playing a better Batman-themed player character. For the min/maxers, it's bragging rights. For serious roleplayers, it's their character's mastery over things which have previously alluded them. For smartass snarkers, it's a license to snark to slightly more dangerous NPCs. For social roleplayers, it's...actually kind of a hassle.

Sunday Morning Soapbox-Rocking the Cradle

Tunisia
On December seventeenth, Mohamed Bouazizi attempted to sell vegetables from his cart in Sidi Bouzid. When he could not afford to bribe officials, he was beaten and his goods and equipment were confiscated. His attempt to take his case to the local governor was rebuffed and he was left in the street with no money, no goods, and no income to provide for his family. In protest of the abuse and apathy of his government, he lit himself on fire. Within a week, other protests had started. When state police fired on protesters, more dissent sprung up in other areas. Ten days after Mohamed Bouazizi's hospitalization, protesters were in the capitol. He lived until the fifth of January, nine days shy of President Ben Ali's flight to Saudi Arabia (The European Union has since frozen his assets).

For 23 years Ali had been ruling Tunisia, taking land from citizens and redistributing it to his allies and family. He had used the media and police to silence dissent, amended the constitution to allow him to run for president twice, and won obviously fraudulent elections with 99.9% of the vote. While the interim government still contains many members of his party (his own Prime Minister now heads the government), it's not expected that those members will remain in the government after free elections (date still to be announced). The uprising was quick, long in coming, and partially organized over the internet. Some also speculate that leaked US State Department cables released by Wikileaks exposing the corruption of the Tunisian leadership may also have played a part, sadly reducing my personal ability to vilify Julian Assange at will.